Theos-Talk Archives (October 2005 Message tt00056)

10/11/2005 4:43 PM


Dear M and friends:


Have you ever speculated about the possible analogies between the egg (used
as a symbol of (how it is made up physically) and the 7 human "principles"
as described in THEOSOPHY ?

Example:

"H. P. Blavatsky directly ...places...the old doctrine [of seven-fold Man]
before
western civilization. The classification is:				

MAN	EGG


1. The Body, or Rupa. (physical form, molecules, cells)
SHELL
2. Astral Body, or Linga-Sarira. (electro-magnetic form,
MEMBRANE
atoms and energies)
3. Vitality, or Prana-Jiva. (Life principle)
ALBUMEN, FOOD
4. Animal Soul, or Kama-Rupa (Lower Manas & desires)
MEMBRANE OUT
5. Human Soul, or Manas. (logic, ratiocination - (Higher manas)
MEMBRANE IN
6. Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi. (discrimination, intuition, wisdom)	YOLK
7. Spirit, or Atma, (HIGHER SELF overshadows the 6)
GERM

  
It at once gives an idea of what man is, very different from the
vague description by the words "body and soul," and also boldly
challenges the materialistic conception that mind is the product
of brain, a portion of the body.

No claim is made that these principles were hitherto unknown, for
they were all understood in various ways not only by the Hindus
but by many Europeans. ...

Considering these constituents in another manner, we would say
that the lower man is a composite being, but in his real nature
is a unity, or immortal being, comprising a trinity of Spirit,
Discernment, and Mind which requires four lower mortal
instruments or vehicles through which to work in matter and
obtain experience from Nature.

This trinity is that called ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS in Sanskrit,
difficult terms to render in English. 

Atma is Spirit, Buddhi is the highest power of intellection, 
that which discerns and judges, and Manas is Mind. 

This threefold collection is the real man; and 
beyond doubt the doctrine is the origin of the
theological one of the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The four lower instruments or vehicles are shown in this table:

Real Man is Triune (3) -- :

Atma,
Buddhi,
Manas,


The Lower Vehicles are 4 -- :

* The Passions and Desires, (emotions) 
* Life Principle, (sometimes called "life-breath")
* Astral Body,	(a pattern or lattice for physical molecules to adhere to) 
* Physical Body. (like a 'shell' ? ) 


These four lower material constituents are transitory and subject
to disintegration in themselves as well as to separation from
each other. When the hour arrives for their separation to begin,
the combination can no longer be kept up, the physical body dies,
the atoms of which each of the four is composed begin to separate
from each other, and the whole collection being disjointed is no
longer fit for one as an instrument for the real man.


DEATH of the PHYSICAL

This is what is called "death" among us mortals, but it is not
death for the real man because he is deathless, persistent,
immortal. He is therefore called the Triad, or indestructible
trinity, while they are known as the Quaternary or mortal four.

This quaternary or lower man is a product of cosmic or physical
laws and substance. It has been evolved during a lapse of ages,
like any other physical thing, from cosmic substance, and is
therefore subject to physical, physiological, and psychical laws
which govern the race of man as a whole....


* THE VISIBLE PHYSICAL MAN IS:
*
*	Brain, Nerves, Blood, Bones, Lymph, Muscles, Organs of
Sensation and Action, and Skin.

*
* THE UNSEEN PHYSICAL MAN IS:
*
* Astral Body, Passions and Desires, Life Principle (called
prana or jiva).
*

It will be seen that the physical part of our nature is thus
extended to a second department which, though invisible to the
physical eye, is nevertheless material and subject to decay.


REAL AND UNREAL

Because people in general have been in the habit of admitting to
be real only what they can see with the physical eye, they have
at last come to suppose that the unseen is neither real nor
material. But they forgot that even on the earth plane noxious
gases are invisible though real and powerfully material, and that
water may exist in the air held suspended and invisible until
conditions alter and cause its precipitation."



Treating of reality and illusion, we find HPB in the S D writing in regard
to "consciousness" [also "awareness" and the "sense of 'I-ness'] (viewed as
a universal fact - the ALL) compared to our human embodied
mind-consciousness (viewed as a separate 'unity' within the ALL ) : 

[ "Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for
everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute, reality, since
the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends
upon his power of cognition. 

To the untrained eye of the savage, a painting is at first an unmeaning
confusion of streaks and daubs of color, while an educated eye sees
instantly a face or a landscape. 

Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains
in itself the noumena of all realities. 

The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest
Dhyan-Chohans, [Lords of Wisdom] are, in degree, of the nature of shadows
cast by a magic lantern on a colorless screen; but all things are relatively
real, for the cognizer [knower] is also a reflection, and the things
cognized [known] are therefore as real to him as himself. 

Whatever reality things possess must be looked for in them [40] before or
after they have passed like a flash through the material world; but we
cannot cognize any such existence directly, so long as we have
sense-instruments which bring only material existence into the field of our
consciousness. [ So what sense instruments are lacking? Can we develop
them? --- DTB]

Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things
belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. [
AWAKE, DREAMING, = all review is a part of our MEMORY But "We," the
"cognizer," have recorded the events and the memories ! The conditions
change, "We" do not. --- D ] 

As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages
through which we have passed we mistook shadows for realities, and the
upward progress of the Ego [ What is that ?] is a series of progressive
awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we
have reached "reality;" but only when we shall have reached the absolute
Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the
delusions produced by Maya. " [ And shall we say that our Lower manasic
consciousness has to be able by a process of purification to reach to and
understand the ATMA (or ABSOLUTE) ? ---D]
S D I 39-40


In another place we find:  


"We thus have to carry on the "cultivation of the soul" [Lower Self or
Manas, I think -- D ] by regular stages, never neglecting one part at the
expense of another. 

K . advises his friend to restrain the senses, and then to "strengthen
himself by himself." 

The meaning here is that he is to rely upon the One Consciousness which, as
differentiated in a man (Lower Self), is his Higher Self. By means of this
Higher Self he is to strengthen the lower, or that which he is accustomed to
call "myself." 



Further: some notes of conversation with a friend of mine read: "Our
consciousness is one and not many, nor different from other consciousnesses.
It is not waking consciousness or sleeping consciousness, or any other but
consciousness itself. 


Now that which I have called consciousness, is BEING. 


The ancient division was: 

Sat, or BEING; [or ESSENTIAL ONENESS, PURITY, TRUTH ?]
Chit,	or Consciousness, [ or MIND ?}   
Ananda, or BLISS, [or WISDOM ?]. 
 
The one consciousness of each person is the WITNESS or SPECTATOR of the
actions and experiences of every state we are in or pass through. 

It therefore follows that the waking condition of the mind is not separate
consciousness. 

The One Consciousness pierces up and down through all the states or planes
of Being, and serves to uphold the memory — whether complete or incomplete —
of each state's experiences. 

Thus in waking life, Sat experiences fully and knows. In dream state, Sat
again knows and sees what goes on there, while there may not be in the brain
a complete memory of the
waking state just quitted. In very deep sleep (Sushupti) —beyond dreams, and
yet on indefinitely, Sat still knows all that is done or heard or seen. "

------------------------

Hope these ideas are useful.

Best wishes, 

Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri 
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 9:57 AM
To: 
Subject: re models, quotes, qualifiers, tangents, and ...


I'd like to offer some speculation about "modeling," in general, for a
start. I tend to think that everything this side of Beness might be seen to
have a "modeled aspect" to it. I tend to see modeling, in general, as a
means of coping, or trying to cope.  

But I tend to suspect that some
students of the Esoteric/Wisdom Tradition might have, in a sense, put too
many eggs in their modeling basket inasmuchas they might have gone off on
some sort of reifying tangent with their models, for whatever reason.  

To me, models of all kinds somehow look rather suspect, though I might tend
to
think that I might have uses for some of them (as in the case of "my
worldview," e.g.).

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